


Safety

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [18]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, First Aid, Gay Billy Hargrove, Homophobia, Not A Happy Ending, Whump, mentions of abuse, nothing graphic but tagging bc you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 13:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20136538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: “What? I’m a skateboarder?”or, why does Max know this much about first aid?





	Safety

**Author's Note:**

> We're so behind on these writing prompts it isn't even funny!! Today's (3 days ago) prompt is most underrated line and personally, the way that Max took charge of first aid made me think she's seen some things. As a result, I tied it into Billy's abuse, and this came out.  
As always, comments and kudos are better writing fuel than coffee, and you can come yell at me on my tumblr @modernfeminismtalking. Enjoy!

“What? I’m a skateboarder?”

Max ignored the burning stares of her friends as she focused on El’s wound. 

She skateboards, of course, but she knows this kind of first aid for a different reason. 

Neil Hargrove is a class “A” asshole. 

Sure, Max’s biological dad wasn’t father of the year or anything, but he never touched her mom or her. 

She can’t say the same about Billy and his mom.

Billy doesn’t talk to her or Susan, but she’s not stupid. 

She’s seen the cuts and bruises on his face and arms, the scars that crisscross his back, the small cigarette burns she knows he thinks he can mask as battle scars. 

Max knows that Neil’s been hitting Billy his entire life, but she didn’t know it was truly bad until the incident.

Max isn’t going to pretend that Billy’s a saint. He’s been abused his entire life, but that doesn’t give him an excuse to be an asshole. 

She also knows that Billy liked everybody. While their home in California was in a big city, preventing rumors from spiraling. 

Max had accidentally seen him a couple times with both girls and guys happy screaming in his room. 

Needless to say, he doesn’t know she saw, and she’s never going to tell him or anyone. 

Nearly three months before they moved, Billy ended up in the hospital with major internal bleeding and a concussion. He was admitted for an entire week. He said he got into a fight on the way home, but Max saw the bruising on Neil’s knuckles and the blood on his boots.

Either way, the hospital stay whipped Susan into a frenzy, insisting that Max knew first aid because “Maxine, your skateboarding adventures can get awfully reckless and you never know when you’ll need it.”

Which, in Susan Mayfield language, roughly translates to “you need to know what to do if an emergency in the house happens and I’m not there.”

Max learned basic first aid from the local YMCA and then some, asking oddly specific hypothetical questions about injuries, just in case.

When her instructor asked Susan about it, her mother’s face blanched, and Max was pulled out of the class. 

When Billy came home, Neil made the announcement to the house that they were moving away, and Max watched Billy’s already pale face drain from any remaining color.

Both kids were mad, but neither were about to fight with Neil. 

The house was tense, Susan walking on eggshells and Neil ready to swing at the first sign of insubordination. 

In the two months before they left, they both spent as much time away from the house as they could. Once Billy’s injuries healed, he was out nearly every night on the beach going to keggers. Max spent time with her friends and skateboarded across the boardwalk at night, watching the colors from the attractions reflect off the ocean at night. 

They left California on a sunny day, crystal clear skies perfect for a day at the beach or on the walk. Their small house faded into a dot in the distance as Max watched from the passenger seat of the Camaro, heart in her throat. 

She didn’t want to leave her home. Neil made sure her house wasn’t safe, but at least here she knew the streets like the back of her hand so she could escape on her board. 

The drive to Hawkins, Indiana, was long, especially because the newly minted step siblings didn’t like each other, but they shared the unspoken grief of leaving their home behind.

Hawkins was like a foreign country, but Neil made sure their house in this new town was just as tense as the one in California.

Neil still hurt Billy, and he wouldn't accept her help when she felt particularly generous to offer, but at least she knew what to do if it happened again.

Max doubted that there were any guys Billy liked in Hawkins, so he was relatively safe from nearly dying again.

She hasn't had to use the first aid until now, but she's silently thankful she learned how. 

Thank God Hawkins had an arcade, with a pathetic Dig Dug score just waiting to be beaten, or she wouldn’t be here now, getting ready to stitch up her best friend’s leg. 

Billy, who's not Billy, is out there, dangerous and ready to kill them all. They're not related, and they don't even like each other, but Max feels some guilt for not noticing he was possessed. 

It's stupid and irrational, they don't spend any time together in the first place, but she's got the gnawing feeling there was something she could've done to prevent him from being taken. 

The rest of the group returns with the supplies, and Max takes a deep breath before going in. 

She couldn't save Billy, but she can save El. 

Later, when the neon light pulsing from the store reminds her of the ocean’s reflections, she looks over at Lucas, at El, and at the rest of her friends.

California was always her safe place, but maybe she's made one in Hawkins as well. 


End file.
